Haʻamonga ʻa Maui is a stone trilithon located in The Kingdom of Tonga (a Polynesian archipelago consisting of 169 small islands).
The trilithon was constructed sometime in the 13th century by Tuʻi Tonga Tuʻitātui (King ‘Strike the Knee’) as a gateway to his throne called ʻesi maka faakinanga (stone to lean against). Popular myth, however, tells that the gate was built by Maui, who retrieved the stones from the neighbouring island ‘Uvea (now Wallis Island) and carried them back to Tonga with help from his canoe. The trilithon’s name partially reflects this myth. Haʻamonga roughly translates to "a stick with loads on both ends, carried over the shoulder", but the trilithon’s full name, Haʻamonga ʻa Maui, more literally means “The Burden of Maui.”
Constructed from 3 coral limestone slabs, it measures 5 meters tall, 1.4 meters wide, and almost 6 meters long. Deep mortises are cut deep into the two standing stones to keep its lintel (or capstone, if we were talking about dolmen) on top.
For various reasons, the gate was at one point mistaken for an observatory, namely owing to a popular mistranslation of a 19th century manuscript which reads: “tuʻu ʻa e Haʻamonga ko e mātanga” (the Haʻamonga stands as an observatory/a place to look at things from) but which more accurately translates to “the Ha’amonga is beautiful to look at.”
